Gamification won’t fix a bad user experience.

Adding gamification to a product seems to be a common request from clients and entrepreneurs. But why?

Many see gamification as an easy add-on to a product that promise to deliver great results in user engagement. The reality is that gamified products usually fail and this is mostly due to bad design.

When you consider gamification as a core element of your app — and not just an afterthought — you can end up with successful gamified experiences like Foursquare, Duolingo or LinkedIn.

But if you ignore the user motivations and just add badges, leaderboards or points to your product and hope for the best, you will probably end up with a pointless user experience and a game that no one wants to play.

The best way to create engaging products is to make sure you provide the best value for your users by learning from their behavior and reflecting those insights into your product.